


Of wolves and men.

by TheBiPenguin



Series: AHS-Coven/Sterek [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-18 09:57:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8158064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBiPenguin/pseuds/TheBiPenguin
Summary: I usually HATE posting individual chapters cause I think fics read so much better if you can do it all in one go...but, I've been super busy so thought it was better to post things as I go as I don't really know when it'll be finished. Hope you enjoy. All feedback welcome xx





	1. The Council

**Author's Note:**

> I usually HATE posting individual chapters cause I think fics read so much better if you can do it all in one go...but, I've been super busy so thought it was better to post things as I go as I don't really know when it'll be finished. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy. All feedback welcome xx

Spring was by far Stiles' least favorite season of them all. Wet, cold and windy, just lovely. 

Scott made fun of him relentlessly, Stiles kept a protective charm around him to fend off said weather whenever he left the house. He'd offered one to the others, but, being "Creatures of the wild" they'd all declined. 

And so it was with a sense of well earned smugness that he stepped into his office, coffee in hand and took his seat at the head of the meeting room table. He was early, the morning briefing wasn't for another twenty minutes. He stretched his back against the tough leather, trying to kick start his brain as he flipped through the notes he'd been left. There was nothing really unusual, 

He'd almost drained the cardboard cup and was feeling closer to functional when the sound of raised voices reached him from the front drive. He gave them a moment to subside and when they didn't, reluctantly pushed himself up from his chair and made his way towards the front of the house. He reached the hallway just as the double doors swung open and a trio of familiar and feared faces came striding through, past an affronted group of Stiles' colleagues. They walked in eerie synchronization, stopping before him in unison.

The Council. 

The leftmost of the triad was a tall, thin woman of sickly pallor wearing a raven black dress, hat and lipstick. To the right was a short, stout man in a bulging suit with braces and a bowler hat. He wore a mischievous, over-white smile beneath a tomato red nose. 

The strangest of them was the woman in the middle. Of average height, she had dark, heavy framed glasses upon her hooked nose. Her bushy, orange hair sprung outwards from her pale skin and hung down to her shoulders either side of her face in a fringeless wall of fuzz. She had shiny red, fingerless gloves and a coat to match, like some strange cross over between cutting edge eccentricity and charity shop throwbacks. 

That one, Stiles new. She was the Council lead, Myrtle Snow. 

He stood as tall as he could, smiling he approached them with as much calmness as he could muster, drawing the older woman close in an informal embrace. 

"How screwed am I?" he whispered. She didn't speak, but, the sly wink she gave him as they parted reassured him a little. 

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" His smile was tight and forced as he addressed the only people in the supernatural world he could actually call his bosses...sort of. The council were three elected individuals tasked with overseeing and monitoring Stiles' work. An unscheduled visit was never a good sign. 

"Well." The crow woman's creased features looked him up and down in a thoroughly uncomfortable way. "We are here to investigate a serious failing in your role as Supreme, Mr Stilinski." 

Stiles stiffened, purposely visibly. "Failing?" He rose his eyebrows, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. 

"KIra Yukimura." The little man spoke with a strong Irish accent, his voice musical and full of wicked glee. 

"Kira's powers are stronger and more under control than ever before. She's an exceptional student and she's made more than adequate progress in our short time together." 

"She's an exceptional blind student." Myrtle's mouth stretched wide as she emphasized her point. 

"Blinded while in your care." Crow woman added. 

That stung. He still felt horrible about that. 

"I spoke, at length, with Mr and Mrs Yukimura and with Kira. The Nogitsune was a threat so rare we have no protocol for it. And-" He puffed his chest out. "May I remind you that I neutralized that threat, which is more than many other Supremes have managed. You haven't even asked about Alison." 

"The hunter girl isn't our concern." Music man waved him off. "But Kira Yukimura was in your care when she was blinded and that means we're obliged to investigate." 

Myrtle shrugged non=chalently, clearly not all that bothered. "The very fact you're still standing here in one piece is a testament to your abilities, Stiles." He wasn't sure whether he was angry for her dismissal of the pack's loss or grateful of her support. He decided to be both. 

"We've read your report on the incident." She continued, her focus more on pulling off her gloves than on him. "We'll speak with the Alpha Hale and with Kira later today, once we've spoken to your colleagues involved in the management planning we'll discuss our findings with you."

Stiles tried to go about his work with as much normality as possible for the rest of the day, which wasn't easy with the council pulling his workers in for questioning at no notice throughout. His guts twisted as he thought about how he was being spoken about, how they thought he'd failed. There was one brand that marked a Supreme for failure and eventual death by misadventure and that was incompetence. The Council were holding the iron and he was powerless to resist, powerless, a strange thought for a Supreme. 

He was completely drained when he pulled up outside the Hale house, next to Derek's Camero. He sat behind the wheel, even once the engine was off, trying to put of the impending conversation with his Alpha. 

There was no way an invasive visit about their business was going to be welcomed. Derek was going to be furious. But, Stiles needed him to cooperate, to make it clear that they had nothing to hide. 

And Kira, poor Kira. She would have to painstakingly go through the story of how she lost her sight, yet again. 

It was too much. It was all too much and it was completely unfair. 

He sucked in a deep breath of the cool evening air and pushed himself up out of the driver's seat, slamming the door and hurrying up the steps to the house before he had a chance to chicken out. 

The house seemed as normal, quiet save for the muffled sounds of the TV in the lounge. Stiles ditched his coat and bag in the closet, kicking off his shoes before going to get a drink from the kitchen. He needed one. 

Derek was pacing the linoleum, his shoulders hunched and eyebrows tightly knitted in the centre of his forehead. 

Shit. 

Stiles came to an abrupt halt in the doorway, pinned like a rabbit in the headlights as Derek stilled, his dark eyes rising to meet Stiles'. 

"Hey." 

"Hey." As Stiles watched, he realized that his husband's jittery stance and pinched expression were formed from worry rather than anger. That was unexpected. 

"What's up?" He crossed the space between them and pressed a kiss to Derek's lips, who stood frozen and unmoving, barely responding. 

"I need to talk to you about something...I got a call today." 

Fuck. The Council had promised they'd let Stiles speak to the pack first. Bastards. 

"It's not as bad as it seems." It wasn't really true, but, he wanted to believe it so badly he thought that maybe Derek wouldn't hear the lie. 

He puzzled, whether he heard it or not. "What are you talking about?" 

The cogs of Stiles' brain stuttered and ground to an anxiously tense hault. "Wait. What are you talking about?"

"I got a call from Alpha McClawley, the pack just north of us."

Sarah McClawley was an impressive woman, statuesque and regal with pale streaks of wisdom in her dark hair. Stiles had only met her once, at his and Derek's wedding, which had been an altogether hurried affair under the less than happy circumstances, but, all supernatural people of importance had had to be invited. She was pleasant, in an intimidating kind of way, Stiles remembered she worn a smart charcoal grey skirted suit and sensible low heels. He'd liked her.

"Oh. What about?" 

Derek exhaled a deep breath, steadying himself. "She wanted to know...if we'd be interested in an opportunity to adopt." 

Stiles must have looked like he'd just been slapped with a wet fish, because Derek's usually carefully measured dialogue flew into overdrive. 

"A cub, a newborn, further north of the McClawley's have been orphaned by hunters and there's no one in any of the adjacent packs able and willing to take him. I know this is huge and I'm sorry to spring it on you like this, but, he can't stay with the McClawley's long, he needs parents and a pack to bond with and how often does an opportunity like this come along? I mean, we can't adopt human or witch babies, they wouldn't cope in a pack and it's not as though we can have kids biologically, no matter how powerful your magic."

The rant left him panting a little, his eyes were wide and so full of hope that all Stiles wanted to say was Yes, Of course, Whatever will make you happy. But this was too big a deal. 

"I-I can't deal with this right now, Der." His heart broke a little as his Alpha's face fell. "Not because I don't want to, I do. I really do. But, there's something I need to tell you too...I'm under investigation over how Kira got blinded." 

"What?!" Derek's voice was incredulous. 

"I should've protected her better. Her and Allison, but, they don't care about that." He pulled a disgusted face at how they'd dismissed her. "They want to speak to you, her and her parents. They've been speaking with the other witches all day." His voice broke, his eyes beginning to burn. "God knows what they're saying." 

Derek wrapped his strong arms round Stiles' narrows shoulders, drawing him into a warm, anchoring embrace. "They weren't there. I was. And you did everything you could. If it wasn't for you, we'd all be dead and the Nogitsune would still be running around killing people. That's what I'll tell them and that's what Kira will tell them too, don't worry." He kissed the top of his head. 

Stiles began to breathe again, his sobs subsiding. "Thank you." 


	2. Cub

Stiles was already on his third coffee of the day, it wasn't even lunchtime, when the text came through.

Mytle Snow: At your home. Need you here ASAP. 

His gut twisted, sloshing the liquid anxiety around inside him. He made his excuses at the office and drove in a relatively sensible manner back to the Hale house. 

In the lounge, Derek was sat bolt upright in his armchair. Used to seeing his husband lounging back against those cushions, it looked entirely unnatural and very defensive. He didn't need werewolf senses to see the rage boiling off his Alpha's skin.

Lined up on the sofa opposite him were the Council. The Raven woman looked thoroughly pinch faced and annoyed, her black handbag clutched tightly in her lap. Music man also looked unimpressed, slouched lazily back, belly bulging. Myrtle on the other hand looked entirely disinterested in all of it, staring absent mindedly out of the window.

"I love these drapes." She mused to no one in particular. "I'm just mad for tartan." 

Stiles cleared his throat from the doorway. "You called?" 

The other two members of the council turned to him sharply.

"Yes," Raven crowed "This looks most suspicious Mr Stilinski. We were under the impression that your husband would answer our questions willingly-"

"And I shall," Derek growl was low. "With Stiles here to hear me do so."

"Which he now is." Myrtle seemed to re enter the room, smiling broadly. Stiles moved deliberately slowly to take a place perched on the sofa arm next to Derek. 

"Alpha Hale, could you walk us through the events leading up to Miss Yukimura's accident, starting with when you first realised there was a demon in your territory. Please include any and all decisions made by Mr Stilinski as well as his actions and your understanding of the reasons behind them."

Derek complied, It was a long and unpleasant tale, but, he left nothing out. Every gut reaching detail was covered, he was shaking with anger when he was finished. Myrtle sat expressionless throughout while music man was the epitome of boredom. That pissed Stiles off, more than a little. When the room went quiet again at last, it was Raven woman who spoke.

"And if I were to say that we believe Miss Yukimura, as a student, should have been nowhere near that encounter how would you-"

"Bullshit." Derek's eyes flashed, startling her "She saved Scott and Isaac's lives. She's as brilliant a fighter as any one of us. Stiles has taught her well."

Music man quirked an eyebrow, the bastard was enjoying this, "Temper, temper. And if we asked why a young witch was involved in a werewolf vs demon conflict in the first place?" 

"She's pack." They answered together, Myrtle gave Stiles a warning glance, so he shut up and let Derek answer alone. 

"She' s family. We'd die for her too,"

Myrtle smiled, whether out of mocking or endearment it was impossible to say. "We will still need to speak with Kira, without either of you. Preferably with her parents."

"Don't bother," All heads turned to see the new arrival, stood in the doorway to the hall. Somehow no one had heard Kira's approach, yet their she stood, head held high in defiance. Her eyes were reduced to scarred white globes, yet they faced the three intruders square on, as thought she were not blind at all. Her inner vision was strong.

"I know why you are here," Her voice was assertive, all traces of the shy little schoolgirl she'd once been erased. "And I know what you would ask me. Stiles has been a fantastic tutor. He helped me when no one else could, my powers would have consumed me long ago without him." 

He smiled a little at her fierceness and was sure she felt it. Raven woman parted her thin lips to speak.

"You're barking up the wrong tree, Ivanna." Kira turned her head exactly the right amount to face the older witch head on.

"Stiles is the Supreme for a reason and if this is an investigation into my accident, let me assure you that he played no part in causing it. He's the reason any of us are still alive."

She stepped to her left, easily avoiding the floor lamp beside her. 

"Now kindly get out of our home. We have a lot to do, tensions are still high and Stiles needs to tell our Alpha that he does want to adopt with him. So please, we'd all like to be left in peace,"

 

Stiles hadn't really known what he thought or felt about Derek's proposal until Kira said it. He wanted kids, that much was certain. But, to adopt an orphaned werewolf cub was a massive responsibility, one he had no idea if they were ready for. 

Until that moment. 

Derek had grinned so wide Stiles was worried his face might tear. That face had then been plastered onto Stiles lips, cheeks, forehead and neck for almost twenty minutes after his nodded agreement with Kira's deduction. He was, in short, elated. 

He was going to be a fantastic dad, Stiles knew it. He might doubt himself sometimes, but, he'd never doubt Derek. 

And so it was that only two days later, Alpha McClawley rather hastily left them with a three month old cub named Teddy, ironically enough for a werewolf. He was a plump little fellow, with folds of pale skin over his chubby wrists and a thick tuft of dark hair on the top of his head. He was the purest and most delicate creature they'd ever seen. 

Both of little Teddy's new parents had been agreed upon two things almost instantly. Firstly, that Teddy would need Derek's bite (Just a little one), to bring him into the pack and make him their Alpha-cub. Secondly, he needed a Wiccaning. It was an old and complicated ritual in which a witch could actively choose to bequeath their powers to their powerless child. It would allow Stiles' magic to become Teddy's as he grew, until eventually he inherited it all.

No Supreme had ever birthed a non-magical child, or adopted for that matter, so Stiles was the first of their line to perform the rite. The Council had been furious, claiming the Supremacy was not a monarchy, that the powers chose a worthy recipient. 

Stiles called bullshit. Annalie had been of the firm belief that as one Supreme's body began to age and fail, the powers simply latched onto a young, growing body who was strong enough to house them, hence how powers appeared in people who'd previously had no witches in their families, like Stiles.

He'd agreed with her. One became the Supreme and lived up to the title, they weren't chosen due to some innate superiority. 

So, little Teddy would do just fine. Half wolf, half witch. The first Alpha Supreme. Derek had looked very proud at that idea. 

They'd spent so much of those two days arranging everything they needed for the rite that everything else regarding becoming parents seemed to get neglected. It wasn't until Stiles was sat on their bed with the snoozing cub in his arms that it dawned on him. 

"Err...Der." 

Derek was sat behind him, limbs wrapped around his little family as he rested on Stiles' shoulder. His response was almost a purr. "Hmmm." 

"Where's kiddo gonna sleep? We got nappies and bottles and clothes...we didn't get a bed...or cot..whatever." 

He was able to turn his head just enough to see Derek's confused frown. He huffed. "I meant to...I meant to make one. I'm sorry." 

Stiles nuzzled against his cheek, unwilling to hold their son with one hand just yet. "It's fine. It's not like we had long to prepare. I'll go into town and-" 

"I'll go." Derek was on his feet already. "He's sleeping well with you, no need to move him." He pressed his lips to his husbands in a parting kiss and hurried from the room, like a little boy whose mummy has given him a very important job. 

Stiles smiled after him, shaking his head. "Your daddy is the almost as adorable as you." he cooed "Yes, he is." 

Teddy yawned, little fists waving as he stretched and let out an unmistakably squelching fart. 

Damn it. 

 

It took a few weeks for things to settle in, but, they did so without incident. His crib was put at the foot of their bed and they were far more cooperative in taking equal turns to get up for him in the night than either of them really expected. They hadn't really counted on the sheer visceral pull of hearing your cub crying out for you, it immediately took all sleep and reluctance to respond from you. 

He'd bonded well to the other pack members very quickly. Kira was a little nervous, she didn't want to drop him, but, they trusted her and she'd been fine after the first few times. Scott and Isaac had turned to mush the moment they held him. It was the first time they'd lost the stale scent of tension that had been hanging between them. Scott hadn't even tensed when Isaac crowded into him to tickle Teddy's tummy, making him squirm in Scott's gentle hands. 

That was a massive relief. 

Lydia and Jackson wanted to come back as soon as they could, but she still had school and he had to work. They'd spent over an hour on Skype cooing over the new addition to the pack, until eventually Derek had intervened and taken him for his nap. Lydia had become more than a little resistant to loosing sight of her new nephew, but, fortunately she was too far away to pose her Alpha any real threat. 

It was good.

Life was good. 

 

They settled into quite a nice routine. The pack were all keen to help babysit, even once Derek did have to remind them that actually they needed to bathe and change him and not just play constantly. They got used to it.

It meant that they didn't face the same problem of so many new parents did, they had plenty of time for work and each other, Or at least they didn't have any less than they did before. They were even able to do some of their work from home while another pack member entertained Teddy, so they could still be near him. 

Which is exactly where they were when it happened. 

Isaac and Kira were playing peekaboo on the sofa with Teddy. Stiles had gone upstairs to work so he could concentrate, but, Derek couldn't tear himself away and was in his usual armchair, failing to focus on drawing up a border patrol rota for when Lydia and Jackson came home. 

It was quiet as the cool afternoon drew towards evening, save for the patter of rain and Teddy's giggling. Derek jumped out of his skin, throwing his papers over the floor as the lounge window smashed inwards, showering the room with glass. A heavy shadow whirled past him and collided with Kira, throwing her off the sofa and slamming her against the wall. Isaac howled in surprise, laying Teddy on the cushions hastily before volting over the back of the furniture to pounce. 

The Demon dodged him easily, hovering over him and dealing him a loud crack over the head, leaving him rolling on the carpet, head spinning as Kira struggled up, blindly trying to orientate herself, unwilling to risk Teddy by firing without aim.

The little wolf screamed as the creature's long claws reached down towards him. Derek gave a roar he didn't even recognise. It ripped its' path from his body, freezing the Demon inches from Teddy's skin.

Get away from my son!

He didn't think as he lunged forwards, swiping his own shorter, thicker claws up over its' face, sending it stumbling back with an inhuman cry. 

Derek had Teddy in his arms in a flash. Isaac was struggling to sit upright, even with Kira's hands on his shoulders. The Demon lifted off the ground, towering over the grounded Alpha, reaching for their cub again. Derek recoiled from it, twisting feebly in an attempt to put himself between them. 

He felt cold, skeletal fingers close around his free forearm. He struggled and roared but it was too strong. Its' sunken face grinned wicked at him. Its' breath smelled of rotting meat, of death.

A loud crack rang through the room as the creatures wrist snapped upwards into an unnatural angle with the rest of its' arm. It howled, releasing him to clutch its' broken limb to its' torso. Confusion scratched onto its' sharp features. 

"Back off, asshole." 

Stiles looked like an avenging angel, sparks dancing on his outstretched fingers. He swung, sending a flaming arc at whatever IT was, but it vanished, fleeing the room the way it entered in a whirl of black smoke.

Leaving them in silence again, save for Teddy's cries and the patter of rain against leaves on the preserve ground.

 


	3. Target

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek and Stiles face some harsh realities.

Derek's fingers stretched out, his eyes closed, falling upon empty space and cool sheets. 

He sat bolt upright, heart racing. Where was Stiles?! 

His husband was knelt at the foot of their bed, gazing down mournfully into their son's crib. His eyes were as wide as they were wet, shimmering in the dim light of the room as he raised his face to Derek's. 

"Couldn't sleep." He murmured, dropping his eyes back to Teddy's snoozing smile. Derek stepped out into the relative chill above the duvet to move around the bed and wrap his arms around this mate. Pressing his lips to Stiles' cool ear.

"We'll figure it out." 

The smaller man shook a little in a quiet sob, his face contorting. "I did this." Derek felt his breathing wobble as his weak voice broke, his breaths rasping in his chest. "I drew a target on our baby's forehead the day I named him Supreme Elect..."

There was a tense moment while Derek considered his response. "We will figure this out." He squeezed Stiles' waist, trying to press some of his own conviction into his body. "He's our son, our heir. Nothing else matters. Fuck the demons and the council and anyone else who tries to hurt us. We're the only ones who matter."

It wasn't true. Of course it wasn't. There were countless others, not to mention the rest of their pack, who mattered to them both immensely. But, right then, in that moment, it was exactly what Stiles needed to hear. 

"I've allocated a team of investigators to it." a hint of the Supreme was creeping back beneath the fierce growl of paternal instincts. "They've told me they'll have a species match and tracked location on that assholes blood by morning."

"Good." Derek wasn't really sure how to respond. "Come back to bed." He tried to pull Stiles to his feet but he didn't budge. "Stiles. He's right here and you cast a hundred and one protective spells on that crib." 

He groaned but after a moment, Derek felt his tense muscles go limp as he allowed himself to be guided back under the duvet and into his Alpha's arms. 

The sun was creeping through the drapes before long. Stiles nuzzled deeper into Derek's warm skin to hide from wakefulness a few minutes longer, filling his ears with the soft rumble of his restful breathing. He was almost back to sleep when a loud scrape of wood on wood cut through his fluffy thoughts. 

He threw his eyes open, heedless of the harsh morning light.

"Derek!" 

Teddy's crib was floating 3 feet off the floor, thick, dark tendrils of magic writhing around the protective blue sphere surrounding their cub. In the doorway of their bedroom stood a tall, thin woman with painted white skin, adorned with fierce red runes. The tendrils of black magic were streaming from her outstretched fingers as she chanted. That was the worst part. She was chanting in a guttural language neither of them recognized, her tongue was black and forked. 

Her chant was cut off as Derek roared, leaping so fast he was barely a shadow flying over Stiles' head and colliding with the white-woman's torso, throwing her backwards through the open doorway. The dark magic holding up Teddy's crib evaporated. Stiles yelped as he threw his hands up, keeping a now wailing Teddy suspended as his crib crashed and shattered against the floor. Summoning his cub into this arms he let out a tense breath. 

He'd heard Derek and...it, fall down the stairs but since then? He had no idea, but, he couldn't hear anything now. Maneuvering the squirming boy, he climbed off the bed and hurried to the top of the stairs.

They were covered in blood.

Derek stopped half way back up the steps towards them, eyes and fangs red in the pale morning light. The rest of the pack were emerging from their rooms, bleary eyed but fangs bared for the fight that was already over.

"Is he okay?" Stiles nodded a little numbly as his Alpha's sharp features molded from fierce beast to concerned father before his eyes. He was too shell shocked to speak. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Two." Myrtle eyed them over the top of heavy framed glasses. 

Derek hadn't let Teddy out of his arms all morning, much to the feisty little wolf's annoyance. Luckily Myrtle and the rest of the Council were talking to Stiles. 

"Two." He confirmed. "Different demons. Different style of attack. But, blood traced back to the same location. Second one was quicker once we had a hit on the first." 

"Well." Music man was uncharacteristically irritable today. "I'd say you better pay them a visit." He drawled as though speaking to a child. 

"The thing is." Stiles returned the insult "The variation in the two, given they came from the same place, is making me think-" 

"Bounty hunters." Myrtle's eyes were wide. In her thick glasses they looked a little terrifying. 

"Bounty hunters." He spat the words across the table at them. "And yes, I do want to pay them a visit. Tonight." 

 


	4. Who the daddies?

The wait until darkness felt like an eternity. An eternity that was spent less on strategic planning and more on convincing the pack that only Derek and Stiles would be going. 

Teddy was to be babysat in pairs on a 2 hour rotation so people could sleep, but, he wasn't to leave the police department. The sherif was on a night shift and the chances of being attacked in public was way too much of an exposure risk for even the dumbest imp. 

So when the night finally fell, Derek and Stiles found themselves parking the camero on the other side of town, no more prepared than they had been that morning. 

It was a bad neighbourhood, practically a slum. Every wall was covered in graffiti and almost none of the street lamps worked.  The address they'd been given was a warehouse right on the edge where the town met the surrounding forest. Nothing in eyesight looked as though it had been used for decades, certainly not passed health and safety at least. 

"You got a plan Mr Wolf?" 

Derek's focus was intense. "There'll only be one bounty hunter in a small town like this. Go in. Get him. Find out who hired him." 

"And if he refuses?" 

He growled in a way even Stiles found unnerving, his eyes flashing in the dark. "We persuade him."

Great. 

It took them a little while to find, but eventually they followed the only sounds of people Derek could hear until they crossed a large parking lot, empty of cars, to an imposing building of questionable stability. An inverted pentagram was painting in something red above the large entrance way. 

"How long before we're recognised?" 

"The supreme? Not long."

They stepped into the sickly, fluorescent indoor glow, squinting as their eyes adjusted to the crowed scene in play around them. The market was a long, wide corridor through the building, with crammed stools and shak-like shops lined up on either side. Dozens of figures bustled between them, haggling and shouting. The stools hung wears from high placed hooks and shelves, jars of unlabelled flesh and wicked looking knives. In the chaos, the pair seemed to go unnoticed. 

That wouldn't do. 

Derek roared. "Which one of you fuckers put a bounty on our baby?"

A fat old man in a dark robe snarled at them from the front of the crowd "Who the hell are you?" 

Already some of the markets clientele had recognised them and were fleeing, shoving to get away as fast as they could towards the far end of the market. 

"We're his fathers."

The old wretch flew backwards in a ball of flames, shattering the nearest stool to splinters. People screamed, some scrambling away deeper into the warehouse, others snarling and mounting counter attacks. Instinct took over as Stiles easily deflected their curses, returning them with his own as stools burned and their enemies fell around them as they strode onwards, plunging deeper into the carnage they were causing. 

Every few yards Derek yanked one of the crowd out, fangs bared. "Bring us the bounty hunter! Give him to us!" 

They must have walked nearly quarter of a mile before the scampering crowd parted and a slimy, thin man with greasy black hair and a sickly pallor was forced forwards. He cowered before the imposing couple.

"You've been sending your people to kill our son." Stiles voice was like ice as Derek snarled at the gaping crowd, warning them to keep their distance.

The slime ball nodded his head, his movements jerky with fear, not willing to raise his face enough to look at them.

"Who hired you?"

"I don't know."

The demons shriek was blood curdling as his head flipped back, his pain rushing up from his lungs in desperate search of escape.

"Liar!"

"I swear I don't know!" He wailed. "Witches. They were witches!"

He could've been lying, but Derek didn't hear anything.  The crowd was already growing louder, angrier. They didn't have long. 

"Did they leave anything? A weapon for you to use, or money? They must have paid you."

The demon's trembling fingers produced a small leather wallet from his trouser pocket and tossed it to them. Derek caught it with ease. It was unremarkable, just a plain brown leather wallet you could buy anyway, other than the fact that it was stuffed with cash. Going after the Alpha-supreme wasn't something you did lightly. 

"Thank you." Derek's smile was wicked and full of fangs. "For your cooperation." 

They turned to leave and for a moment the crowd seemed to surge forwards to stop them. They stopped abruptly, gasps escaping thei lips as the bounty hunters cowering form caught alight, his flaming arms waving wildly in a terrifying display. By the time anyone looked for them again, the witch and the wolf were both gone.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teddy was fine. Nothing to report. 

They'd driven in tense silence to go an collect him, both of their nerves frayed from the nights work. It wasn't until he was back in his crib that they began to relax and think about their next move. 

What witch could possibly want Teddy dead? Attacking the supreme was suicidal...unless you didn't plan on getting caught. No Supreme meant no one to answer to, there was that. Or maybe it was someone who didn't want a wolf for a supreme in years to come. 

The wallet seemed of limited value, but at least people would think twice before attacking them now after their little stunt. Kira had spent hours going over it, trying every spell and ritual she knew to try and get some psychic hit off it. She'd been damn annoyed when she'd eventually had to concede defeat and hand it over for someone else to try. 

So they still had nothing when the Council were sat around thier kitchen table the next day, sipping their coffee with bitter distaste. 

"You've incited the demons." The Raven woman crowed "and gained nothing!" 

Kira reached across the table for a biscuit, sighing loudly. "Just because I didn't get a hit on it doesn't mean someone else won't. I know I'm good." 

"We can only hope." The Irish witch leaned his chubby frame forwards on his creaking chair for a biscuit too, bumping Kira's hand with his own. She cried out as though burned, her coffe falling from her hands and shattering on the floor. She looked horrified. 

Derek was out of his chair like lightening, gripping the young witch by the shoulders to steady her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

She raised a shaky finger at their guests. "You! You did this! You hired him to get Stiles out of the way so you could rule!" She was shreiking like a bandshe, her voice wild and uncontrolled. "You!"

The fat man raised his hand to strike, but, Stiles was quicker, sending him sprawling backwards off his chair onto the floor, stunned and unmoving.

The crow tried to make a run for it, but she too was struck down in a flash of red light and left lying in the open doorway. Stiles turned his blank face to the last remaining Councillor.

Myrtle Snow looked aghast, frozen in her seat. "Tell me you didn't know. We've been friends since I was a boy." She tore her gaze from her treacherous colleagues to face him, but, still she didn't respond.

"Tell me you didn't know!"

Kira reached across to sieze her wrist in one hand. After a moment she spoke. "She didn't."

He sighed. That was one betrayal he didn't think he could've handled.

Derek stalked around the table to tower over their fallen enemies, whose eyes were open and awake despite their paralysis.

"What do you suppose we do with these two then?!" He drew his claws, but stopped as Stiles' hand closed around his wrist.

"If we kill them, we'll be called corrupt." He crouched down to the ground, his attention turning to them as their eyes swivelled around wilding, searching for some impossible escape. "You're going to stand trial and you're going to be found guilty. Do you know the punishment for harming a fellow Salem descendant?" 

Of course they did, every witch knew all too well, but, they couldn't answer. 

"Death by fire." Kira reminded them. 

"Death by fire." He echoed. 

 

It wasn't perfect. Life never is. The councillors were replaced following their guilty verdict and the demons kept their distance, save the occasional brave idiot. 

Life generally settled down. 

The years passed, Lydia graduated and came back to work at Beacon Hills general so her parents could help babysit her and Jackson's own Cubs. Kira moved out eventually to live with a human fiancé named Steven and took a job in Stiles' office in the department of education and teaching of safe magical practise. 

Scott and Isaac...well that was a surprise. They leant on each other heavily as they grieved Allison and let her memory go. Reliance turned to friendship and friendship turned into, well, more than friendship. Everyone was more than a little cynical when they announced that they were dating, but, they were just happy that they were happy. That was three years ago and they were still going strong.

Derek and Stles remained much the same, evolving to deal with each new adventure in their packs life as Teddy progressed into pre school and began sports and hosted birthday parties and presented countless other challenges that parents are expected to deal with. 

He was impressive, to say the least. His werewolf strength and speed made him a menace on the pitch. He wasn't the most academic, although his aunt Lydia made sure he still got good grades. His magic was strong, shockingly strong, but, he never craved it, never wanted for any more of it than he had at the time. He knew his time would come and his focus was on learning how to be a good Alpha and a good Supreme. 

And he would be. He was going to be the best that ever lived, not that he'd believe it. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Give it to me!" 

"No."

"Teddy!"

"Dad!" 

The remote hovered, shaking in the air, between the two battling witches. Stiles on one sofa, his face an exasperated map of creases as he laughed at his son's strained expression opposite him. 

"If you crap yourself-"

"I want MTV." Teddy's athletic frame shifted as he pulled harder on the invisible thread he and his father were fighting over. His scruffy teenage fringe falling into his flashing eyes.

Stiles gave and the remote flew across into the triumphant young wolf's hands. He roared victoriously as the heavy bass line filled the room.

Derek groaned. "What did you let him win for? I don't wanna watch this."

Stiles scowled at his husband "I didn't let him do anything. He's using the werewolf strength you gave him to make his magic stronger." 

"Damn right." Teddy's smug face was adorable, even in adolescence. "Like fathers like son."

They laughed.

"Right." 


End file.
